Former Labor Secretary Defends Student Protesters

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has defended students who are protesting Israel's war in Gaza on college campuses across the country.

"Let's be clear about a few things. Antisemitism should have no place in America—not on college campuses or anywhere else," Reich, a professor of public policy at University of California Berkeley, said in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter.

"But there is nothing inherently antisemitic about condemning the ongoing bloodshed in Gaza that has killed 34,000 people, mostly women and children."

Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, The Associated Press reported, citing the local health ministry. The war began after Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel, when 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage.

"Protesting this slaughter is not hate speech. It's what should be done on a college campus—taking a stand against a perceived wrong, at least provoking discussion and debate."

Reich, who is Jewish, added that the "mission of the university is to coach students how to learn, not tell them what to think.

"Peaceful demonstrations should be encouraged, not shut down. And having armed police arrest peaceful student demonstrators is never acceptable."

Newsweek has contacted Reich for further comment via email.

As the death toll continues to mount in Gaza, students at Columbia University last week set up an encampment on the university's lawn to protest the war in Gaza and demand the school divest from "companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine."

Pro-Palestinian protest encampments spread to colleges across the country and abroad in solidarity with the Columbia students after the university called in law enforcement to sweep the encampment and arrest more than 100 student protesters. Since then, other universities have also called in police to shut down the protests, leading to hundreds of arrests nationwide.

Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism, though many Jewish students are among the protest organizers and refute those allegations.

Others say the allegations of antisemitism are being weaponized against pro-Palestinian student protesters.

"As a Jewish person and as a person of conscience, I wouldn't be associating with this protest movement if I thought that anyone here harbored or espoused prejudice of any kind," Joseph Howley, a professor at Columbia, told AJ+.

"There's a really powerful right-wing movement in this county that wants to crush higher education, that wants to suppress the culture of free speech and inquiry and debate at universities across this country."

At Columbia, students and administrators are continuing to engage in negotiations, the university said in a statement on Saturday night.

"Dialogue between university officials and student organizers is ongoing," a university spokesperson said. "There is no truth to claims of an impending lockdown or evictions on campus."